Chapter 728: Chapter 501: The Real Lu Qingxue?
At 4 o’clock in the morning, Mu Fan jolted awake from his bed and looked out at the pitch-black darkness outside the window.
Mu Fan felt as if he were in a dream, he hadn’t experienced this kind of life for ten days, but it had already become an instinct ingrained in his brain.
When he lay back down on the familiar bed, this instinctive reaction was naturally activated.
“Morning training.”
After a quick wash, Mu Fan gently pushed open the door to his room, inside the empty living room, only the scattered chairs and tables showed what his crazy companions had been up to last night.
With the first step on the moist stone road, his body’s functions began to rapidly activate and revive.
A steaming power began to awaken within him.
On the deserted road, the only figure appeared, running against the night.
That familiar boulder, that winding and lengthy mountain path.
With a shout, when Mu Fan felt the heavy boulder on his back again, he grinned.
This was a rare tranquility, this was his life.
He liked everything here.
Ha, ah, ha, ah…
That power-filled voice, carried farther and farther by the chilly mountain wind.
The path of physical cultivation is valued for its persistence.
And Mu Fan had never once forgotten the dream in his heart.
He would shine in the darkness, and eventually, his dream would come true.
…
The massive rock undulated inexplicably with Mu Fan, from the base of the mountain to its peak.
The summit of Little Green Mountain was still that platform made of rocks.
With a thud, as Mu Fan landed heavily on it, the echo carried far.
Dripping sweat steamed, Mu Fan gently set down the boulder from his back and wiped away his sweat.
The moment he lifted his eyelids, he saw a cold, Snow Lotus-like figure reflected in his eyes.
Skin white as snow, dressed in black bow clothes.
A stark contrast to her daytime attire, yet it made her personal temperament even more distinct.
Admiration began to appear in Mu Fan’s eyes.
Lu Qingxue was true to her word, coming here every day, no matter the weather!
Perhaps there was a sense of anticipation in his heart when he came here by instinct?
Compared to formally finding the Swordsmanship Club during the day, Mu Fan preferred to communicate in this quiet environment.
“It’s been a while.”
Lu Qingxue gazed straightforwardly at the rock lying across in front of her, her body poised to shoot an arrow without the slightest tremor.
Mu Fan’s eyes brightened, Lu Qingxue’s words circumvented the scene of his return to the biological medical center that early morning.
“You were looking for me yesterday… was there anything you needed?”
Mu Fan thought for a moment, then asked.
“Yeah, your name has been posted on the assassin union, with a bounty of 15 million.”
Those chilly words made Mu Fan’s eyes widen, he couldn’t have imagined they would come from the ice-like Lu Qingxue.
“The identity of the person who posted it is anonymous, but you should know who it is.”
Lu Qingxue’s face remained devoid of any fluctuation, but her words shocked Mu Fan. If he listened to just those few sentences, he might even think that Lu Qingxue had been watching the whole incident unfold that day.
However, Lu Qingxue’s few words had also served as an exchange of secrets, telling Mu Fan about her secrets in another way.
Since Senior Sister Lu didn’t want to spell it out and he didn’t want to reveal more, they both tacitly agreed to this way of exchanging information.
Thinking of this, Mu Fan’s mentality was no longer as tense as at the beginning, he simply said flatly,
“It’s nothing more than the Tang family’s old Dog.”
Mu Fan didn’t see it, but when Lu Qingxue heard his words, her beautiful brow twitched slightly, her eyes filled with some surprise.
“You’re not worried? Not afraid?”
A rare interrogative sentence.
“I don’t care, why should I be afraid? It’s just a crazed old dog.”
When Mu Fan uttered these words, a flash of blood in his eyes passed by unconsciously, but it caused a nearly imperceptible flutter in Lu Qingxue’s breathing.
All of this happened inadvertently; Mu Fan had not paid any attention to it, nor had he noticed the fleeting expression of surprise in the icy Senior Sister Lu’s eyes.
“You’ve changed a lot in the past ten days, so much that it’s far beyond my imagination,” Lu Qingxue’s cool voice said, pleasing to the ear.
“I’ve experienced a lot, thought a lot, and been guided by dreams.” Mu Fan was now gradually shedding the greenness of his early days at the academy.
“Who did you learn your Mecha Skill from?”
Lu Qingxue paused for a moment, still not turning her head, and gazed forward as she asked.
“I’m self-taught.”
“Did you think about life or death when Solomon’s mecha hit you?” As she spoke these words, Lu Qingxue’s three fingers lightly twisted the bowstring.
Mu Fan hadn’t noticed her right hand, which was out of his line of sight; he saw that the jade-like bracelet that had been on her left wrist was gone.
“I didn’t think about it; I enjoy the feeling of combat,” Mu Fan retracted his gaze and looked determinedly into the distance, piercing through the layers of night to the farther horizon, and then he calmly continued.
“To live is to press on. To die is to return to the vast ocean of stars.”
The wind was quiet at that moment, and then her cold voice came with the first rays of sunrise from ahead:
“So this is your path? To defy authority, to not fear death, to hold dreams close, and to never stop until death?”
Finally, Lu Qingxue lowered her bow, her bright eyes fixed on Mu Fan.
Under Mu Fan’s exceptional night vision, her skin appeared as smooth as snow, flawless, with eyebrows like distant mountains, and eyes like painted dots, now looking directly at him.
In her eyes, there was a kind of inquiry resembling faith.
For Mu Fan, those sixteen words seemed to capture precisely what he desired to achieve, and it was the first time he had observed Lu Qingxue’s face so closely.
She seemed as tranquil and pure as a Snow Lotus, untouched by dust.
This was a beauty that transcended worldly concerns.
“This is my path, for my goal… relentless and unstoppable!” Mu Fan spoke with conviction.
After finishing his words, Mu Fan looked seriously at Lu Qingxue:
“What about you, Senior Sister Lu? You’re very strong and know a lot, but you’ve never mentioned what you want to do.”
“What I want to do?”
At that moment, Lu Qingxue’s gaze was like that of a pure and naïve young girl, her eyes filled with bewilderment and perplexity as she looked back at Mu Fan.
“For the mission of the family, I will spare no effort.”
Family, mission?
This was the first time Mu Fan had heard these words from Lu Qingxue, words that seemed too distant.
“Isn’t this living for others, and losing yourself for the sake of a family? Is it worth it? Aren’t you cultivating the Swordsmanship Heart, which values relentless pursuit the most?” Mu Fan frowned, the mystery of Lu Qingxue dissipating in his eyes.
No one would have expected that the Swordsmanship Club president, seemingly invincible in swordsmanship and icy as a mountain, would have such a pure heart beneath her exterior.
Could this be the real face of Lu Qingxue?
Mu Fan had no idea that he had unwittingly guessed an answer close to the truth.
“I will be the sharpest sword in the family.”
After finishing her words, Lu Qingxue shook her head slightly with a bit of embarrassment, “That’s something I shouldn’t have said; you’re the first to hear it.”
“Why me?”
Lu Qingxue’s cool eyes studied Mu Fan intently, and she earnestly said, “Because there’s something very special about you, a kind of special, real existence, not at all unpleasant… aura.”
No one knew that what Lu Qingxue actually wanted to say wasn’t “not at all unpleasant,” but rather “inviting… aura.” Just that at the moment of speaking, she quietly switched the words.
She didn’t know why she did that.
Mu Fan had never imagined the answer would be like this; he didn’t even know he had such an aura about him.
“Well, it’s just a suggestion, to live as the person you want to be.”
Here, Mu Fan’s face suddenly looked a bit embarrassed, and his voice lost the determination of earlier.
“Senior Sister Lu, may I discuss something with you?”